The Summer Carnival Milestone with Miranda Liasson

Most people don’t think of going to a carnival as a major milestone in their life, but for me, it sort of was.

As a high school girl, skinny and (more than a little) nerdy, I attended local summer carnivals with my girlfriends. In our hometown and neighboring towns, there were plenty, since we came from an area with a lot of diverse ethnicities and religions and they all had summer celebrations of their fabulous food and traditions. We’d hang around in our pack, having fun, eating very well, but always trying to attract the attention of groups of boys who were doing the same thing.

This strategy never really got us anywhere. But I remember in our endless rounds walking all about the carnival grounds, always sighing after cute couples who walked together, hand in hand, sharing cotton candy, laughing under the summer stars. Teenage angst…enter here with a heavy sigh.

It seemed so perfect, and so simple! Going to a carnival with your boyfriend. Oh, I longed for that experience with a passion! Someday, I wanted a boy to walk with me like that. Look at me like that. Win me a stuffed animal, for gosh sakes! These were all in the realm of “normal experiences,” which sometimes seemed to me to be beyond imaginable.

Fast forward a few years later. In college, I had the fabulous summer job of being a camp counselor. On our nights off, a group of us would often go into the nearest big city for fun. One year, I went with a guy whom I liked a lot to a summer carnival.

We were just getting to know each other. I was thrilled that he asked me out, and the fact that we’d even come upon the carnival was a bit of an accident.

We had so much fun that warm summer night! We walked around and played games and ate delicious greasy fries and hot powdered elephant ears, and he held my hand! We ate cotton candy. And believe it or not, he played some game of skill (that I can’t even remember now) and won me a teddy bear that I kept for a long time afterward.

He even kissed me goodnight.

I was completely spellbound. And I had this sense of crossing over…going from that dreamy adolescent daze of wanting so desperately to live life to actually living it.

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About the book:

When the other shoe drops, she’ll steal his heart…

Maddie Kingston just walked away from everything in order to take over her family’s struggling shoe business. And she’s in some serious trouble. The majority of the company’s shares have been bought out by none other than Maddie’s ex-boyfriend, self-made billionaire Nick Holter. Now Maddie needs his help…even if it means buying Nick from a charity bachelor auction.

After the Kingstons destroyed his grandfather’s career, Nick vowed to take over their company. He’s inches from victory when he finds himself bought and paid for…by his sexy ex-girlfriend who’s hell-bent on saving her family’s company. Between their families’ feud and their own unfinished business, tempers—and emotions—run hot.

Too hot.

Because kissing with the enemy is a guaranteed shoe-in for trouble…